Local need for foster care continues to grow

With child abuse on the rise in the United States, foster parenting and adoption are needed more now than ever.

Currently there are more than 500,000 children in foster care in the United States because of family crisis, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

May is Foster Care Month and the need for more foster parents is rising, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The department's Web site states the rate of child abuse cases has risen from 43.2 percent in 2001 to 48.3 percent in 2005, or 3,598,000 cases nationally. In 2005, an estimated 1,460 children in the United States died from abuse or neglect.

In Churchill County, 337 child abuse or neglect cases were investigated in 2006, according to the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) in Fallon.

When cases are investigated and evidence exists that mistreatment or abuse has occurred, what happens to the children?

When the safety of a child is in jeopardy, he or she may become a ward of the state. It becomes the state's responsibility to provide shelter, clothing, education and a child welfare environment to help with the transition.

In many counties foster care families are limited. That is also the case in Churchill County.

Every child in need of placement in the county has been placed with a foster family. However, some of them are in other counties, said Carolyn Storz, who handles foster care licensing and recruitment for DCFS.

"There are 15 foster families in Fallon," she said. "We prefer them to be placed within their own communities."

Although the need for more foster parents or adoptive parents exists in the county, DCFS officials said they would not remove a child an additional time to a closer location because it could cause more pain to them.

"They are already suffering from grief and loss being removed from their home," said Paula Achurra, social welfare manager for DCFS in Fallon.

Clark and Washoe counties have individual offices for child welfare; however, the remaining 15 counties in Nevada have four social welfare managers between them.

Achurra and her staff cover Churchill County, Pershing County, Mineral County, Schurz and parts of Lyon County including Fernley, Silver Springs, Yerington and Smith Valley.

Children in foster care need safe, nurturing, stable environments until they can be reunited with their families, said Storz. She said DCFS tries every avenue possible to ensure the family can be reunited.

"We work towards strength or strengthening them," said Achurra. "We want to see them succeed. We do not want to raise other people's children."

DCFS officials said the agencies want reunification to occur whenever possible. Foster parenting or adoption is necessary for temporary or permanent placement.

Fallon's DCFS officials said they will be having a picnic in June to thank the families who participate, as well as for the children.

For more information on foster care, foster parenting or adoption, call the DCFS office at 423-8566.